Prevalence and determinants of obesity among adolescent school children of North Kerala

Authors

  • Jaya Koothupalakkal Viswambharan Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College, Thrissur, Kerala, India
  • Thomas Bina Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College, Kozhikode, Kerala, India
  • Lucy Raphael Department of Community Medicine, Jubilee Mission Medical College, Kerala, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20203391

Keywords:

Adolescent school children, Obesity, Overweight, Risk factors

Abstract

Background: Obesity has emerged as one of the major health problems in recent years. This increasing prevalence has implications in health issues in later parts of life. Life style factors and diet practices are the attributed factors to the development of obesity.

Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted among 1011 adolescent school children in Kozhikode corporation area, Kerala, South India after getting necessary permissions. A semi structured questionnaire which contained questions related to socio demographic characters, diet, physical activity and other known risk factors of obesity in adolescents was administered.

Results: 76.8% of the study subjects were of normal weight, while 15.5% were underweight (thinness- 9% and severe thinness- 6.5%). 1.9% were obese and 5.8% were overweight. The combined prevalence of overweight and obesity was 7.7%. Nuclear family, better family education, better SES, skipping breakfast and consumption of more sweets were associated with obesity.

Conclusions: Preventive and promotive measures to reduce the burden of obesity needs to be initiated from early childhood and must be insisted to the family members also. School based lifestyles and behavioural change measures, encouraging school teachers to actively participate in these measures, active involvement of school children in regular sports activities, periodic anthropometric assessment and intervention when needed along with sensitization of parents towards the consequences of obesity are some of the measures to prevent the rising epidemic.

References

Black RE, Morris SS, Bryce J. Where and why are 10 million children dying every year? Lancet. 2003;361(9376):2226-34.

Mahajan H, Srivastav S. Age-sex trends of under nutrition among the adolescent school children in an urban resettlement colony of district Gautam-budhnagar, Uttar Pradesh: a comparative study with WHO 2007 reference standards. Int J Med Sci Public Health. 2013;2(3):751-4.

The State of the World’s Children 2005- Childhood under threat.2004 Available at: https:/ /www. unicef.org/publications. Accessed on 10 January 2020.

Jagadesan S, Harish R, Miranda P, Unnikrishnan R, Anjana RM, Mohan V. Prevalence of overweight and obesity among school children and adolescents in Chennai. Indian Paediatrics. 2014;51:544-9.

Chudasama RK, Eshwar T, Thakrar D, Eshwar ST. Prevalence and comparison of obesity, overweight, and thinness by different growth standards among affluent schoolchildren (8-18 years) in Rajkot. J Mahatma Gandhi Inst Med Sci. 2017;22:99‑104.

Bjorntorp P. International Text book of Obesity. 1st edition. UK: John Wiley and Sons Ltd. 2001.

World Health Organization. Nutrition in adolescence: Issues and challenges for the health sector. Adolescent health and development. WHO discussion papers on adolescence. Available at: https:// apps. World Health Organization. int/iris/handle. Accessed on 10 January 2020.

World Health Organization. Special issues in the management of obesity in childhood and adolescence. Obesity preventing and managing the global epidemic. Available at: https:/ /www.who. int/nutrition/publications/obesity/WHO_TRS_894/en/. Accessed on 10 May 2020.

World Health Organization. Controlling the global obesity epidemic, Nutrition. 2009. Available at: https://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/obesity/en. Accessed on 10 May 2020

World Health Organization. Obesity: preventing and managing the global epidemic. 2000. Available at https://www.who.int/nutrition/publications/obesity. Accessed on 10 May 2020.

World Health Organization. Childhood overweigh and obesity. Global strategy on diet, physical activity and health. Geneva; World Health Organization. 2020. Available at https:// www.who. int/dietphysicalactivity/childhood. Accessed on 10 May 2020.

World Health Organization. What are the causes for children and adolescents to become obese. Global strategy on diet, physical activity and health. Geneva; World Health Organization. 2020. Available at: https:// www.who.int/ dietphysicalactivity/ childhood. Accessed on 10 May 2020.

World Health Organization. STEPS Geneva: World Health Organization; 2017. Available at: https://www.who.int/ncds/surveillance/steps/STEPS_Manual.pdf. Accessed on 10 May 2020.

Park K. Parks textbook of social and Preventive medicine. 25th edition. Jabalpur: M/s Banarsidas Bhanot; 2019; 429.

Goyal RK, Shah VN, Saboo BD, Phatak SR, Shah NN, Gohel MC, et al. Prevalence of overweight and obesity in Indian adolescent school going children: Its relationship with socioeconomic status and associated lifestyle factors. J Assoc Physicians India. 2010;58:151-8.

Bharati DR, Deshmukh PR, Garg BS. Correlates of overweight and obesity among school going children of Wardha city, Central India. Indian J Med Res. 2008;127(6):539-43.

Prasad RV, Bazroy J, Singh Z. Prevalence of overweight and obesity among adolescent students in Pondicherry, South India. Int J Nutr Pharmacol Neurol Dis. 2016;6:72-5.

Chandra N, Anne B, Venkatesh K, Teja GD, Katkam SK. Prevalence of childhood obesity in an affluent school in Telangana using the recent IAP growth chart: a pilot study. Indian J Endocr Metab. 2019;23:428-32.

Rohilla R, Rajput M, Rohilla J, Malik M, Garg D, Verma M. Prevalence and correlates of overweight/obesity among adolescents in an Urban City of North India. J Fam Med Primary Care. 2014;3:404-8.

Warden SN, Warden CH. Pediatric obesity: an overview of etiology and treatment. In: Styne DM, editor. Pediatric endocrinology. Paediatric Clinic of North America. Philadelphia: WB Saunders Company; 2001: 361-369.

Government of India. Census of India 2011- Provisional population Totals, Kerala. Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India. 2011. Available at: https://censusindia.gov.in/2011-prov-results. Accessed on 10 May 2020.

Ramesh K. Prevalence of overweight and obesity among high school students of Thiruvananthapuram City Corporation, Kerala, India. AMJ. 2010;3(10):650-61.

Laxmaiah A, Nagalla B, Vijayaraghavan K, Nair M. Factors affecting prevalence of overweight among 12- to 17-year-old urban adolescents in Hyderabad, India. Obesity. 2007;15:1384-90.

Kotian MS, GK S, Kotian SS. Prevalence and determinants of overweight and obesity among adolescent school children of South Karnataka, India. Indian J Community Med. 2010;35(1):176-8.

Aggarwal T, Bhatia RC, Singh D, Sobti PC. Prevalence of obesity and overweight in affluent adolescents from Ludhiana, Punjab. Indian Pediatr. 2008;45(6):500-2.

Premanath M, Basavanagowdappa H, Shekar MA, Vikram SB, Narayanappa D. Mysore childhood obesity study. Indian Pediatr. 2010;47:171-3.

Padez C, Mourão I, Moreira P, Rosado V. Prevalence and risk factors for overweight and obesity in Portuguese children. Acta Paediatr. 2005;94:1550-7.

Guedes DP, Rocha GD, Silva AJ, Carvalhal IM, Coelho EM. Effects of social and environmental determinants on overweight and obesity among Brazilian schoolchildren from a developing region. Rev Panam Salud Publica. 2011;30:295-302.

Kaur S, Kapil U. Prevalence of overweight and obesity in school children in Delhi. Indian Paedia. 2008;45:330-31.

Maddah M, Nikooyeh B. Obesity among Iranian adolescent girls: Location of residence and parental obesity. J Health Popul Nutr. 2010;28(1):61-6.

Thompson JJ, Thomas JJ, Bhainvualiku A, Khan AN, Becker AE. Breakfast skipping as a risk correlate of overweight and obesity in school going ethnic Fijian adolescent girls. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2010;19(3):372-82.

Valente FX, Candido FG, Lopes LL, Dias DM, Carvalho SDL, Pereira PF et al. Effects of coconut oil consumption on energy metabolism, cardiometabolic risk markers, and appetitive responses in women with excess body fat. Eur J Nutr. 2018;57(4):1627-37.

Karlsson T, Riise RH, Dierkes J, Drevon CA, Tell GS, Nygård O. Associations between fish intake and the metabolic syndrome and its components among middle-aged men and women: the Hordaland health study. Food Nutr Res. 2017;61(1):1347-79.

Jakobsen MU, Dethlefsen C, Due KM. Fish consumption and subsequent change in body weight in European women and men. Br J Nutr. 2013;109(2):353‐62.

Downloads

Published

2020-07-24

How to Cite

Viswambharan, J. K., Bina, T., & Raphael, L. (2020). Prevalence and determinants of obesity among adolescent school children of North Kerala. International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health, 7(8), 3142–3148. https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20203391

Issue

Section

Original Research Articles